1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for pattern processing for determining boundary positions of an outline used in outline correction at the time of effecting processing, such as enlargement and reduction, with respect to an outline of a pattern indicating a character, a code, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is known, an outline font system in which a pattern of a character, a figure, or the like is generated from outline font data has come to be widely adopted in desktop publishing (electronic publishing by using a personal computer). In this system, coordinates at a plurality of control points which shape an outline of the pattern are retained as data, and at the time of developing the pattern on a bit map, straight and/or curved lines passing through the coordinates at the control points are generated so as to form an outline, while the part inside the outline is blotted. The advantage of this system lies in that in effecting processing such as enlargement and reduction with respect to a pattern, a deterioration in the quality of the character can be avoided if the outline of the pattern is first enlarged or reduced before the outline is converted to a dot pattern, as compared with a case where the dot pattern is directly processed.
In developing a pattern on a bit map, the outline is corrected by making use of horizontal boundary positions and vertical boundary positions indicating a boundary of the outline. The horizontal boundary positions and the vertical boundary positions are conventionally determined one by one by relying upon the human perception by referring to the outline. For this reason, there has been a drawback in that in cases where the configuration of the outline is complicated or a multiplicity of outlines need to be processed, skill is required and the operation is liable to become complicated, causing much time and labor to be expended.